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A highlight of our Mendoza trip was our full day bike wine tour with Martin. He was a great host: the bikes were well maintained and perfect for this ride; Martin attended to all of our needs; and he served as a terrific guide, not just on the trail but also helping translate where needed and steering us to 3 special wineries. The cycling was manageable for just about anyone, so we'd highly recommend this for anyone visiting the area who wants to experience the wineries with a local guide in a special way.…
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Date of experience: March 2020
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We had a full day wine & bike tour with Martin, and the experience was phenomenal. Despite being in Mendoza during the COVID-19 outbreak, Martin was a true professional. He took every precaution with respect to sanitizing the bikes as well as the car during the transfer. He also made sure that we were safe and welcome at all of the vineyards that we visited. Leading up to the tour, it was incredibly well organized. Martin and his wife were both very communicative and helpful at every stage of the process. I could not recommend this tour more. Aside from Martin being an amazing guide, the vineyards/wine/food were all excellent. This is a must in Mendoza.…
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Date of experience: March 2020
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Our guide Martín was very friendly and was knowledgeable on the two wineries we visited. He picked us up and took us to his house where the bikes were stored. There are two types of bikes standard and mountain bike, we were given the mountain bike. The bikes were very well looked after and were good quality. We then cycled to the two wineries which were different in how they produced their wines so it was good to see this however I thought the visits were very short. I enjoyed the visit to the first winery better as you could see the vineyard and the production process, the tasting was also better as they had prepared some food to pair with the wines. Whereas the second was just to a warehouse where they stored the wine, with tasting standing around in a room with other tour groups. The quality of the wine was great and that maybe justifies the price but the cycling part was a little disappointing, I had expected to be cycling close to the vineyards and not along the road. Our tour was on the day that most vineyards began to close to public visits due to the coronavirus, so it it understandable that perhaps Martín was concerned about this which may have affected our tour. He provided hand sanitiser throughout the day and disinfected our helmets before we wore them. However, despite this, I feel the tour was overpriced all things considered.…
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Date of experience: March 2020
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Responded Mar 16, 2020
Thank you for your review. We are always keen to receive feedback so we can improve our services. Having said that we find your criticisms slightly unfair given the extreme global circumstances we are facing currently both in Argentina and the rest of the world. Tourism has halted and wineries are facing extreme conditions due to the current coronavirus crisis. The wineries are in disarray, not knowing how to react; whether to stay open or continue receiving the public. They change their protocols on a daily basis resulting in last-minute notifications of new rules/regulations. Despite all of the above, we did you the favour by accepting your last-minute booking (made the day before the tour). All other bookings had cancelled last minute (due to the travel restrictions) so we offered you a private tour at no extra cost. We were also taking a risk accepting the booking, as we were not sure whether we would receive notice on the morning of the tour of winery closures. As it happened, we did receive notice from a number of wineries but were able to improvise and offer alternative options, all last-minute. This is a lot of extra stress for us, but we accommodated you (as you were fellow Irishmen) and we wanted to ensure that you could enjoy your Argentinian experience to the max, despite the current problems/crisis. Also Martin was taking a great risk to his own health by accepting your reservation without knowing when you had arrived in Argentina and from where you had travelled. One of the last-minute ‘protocols’ introduced by the wineries on the morning of your tour (and communicated to us on the morning of the tour) was that access would no longer be allowed into the ‘bodega’ (production area) of the winery. This was well explained to you at the time. This is obviously for health and safety reasons so the bodega would not be contaminated. Despite this new rule, they still let you in for a shorter period of time. So although the visit part of the experience was shortened, you were still provided with an upgraded extra-premium tasting, offering the best wines the winery had to offer, again at no extra cost. This is part of the reason you may have found the visit ‘quite short,’ however this is NOT the norm and we would hope that our customers (especially fellow countrymen) would be a little more understanding of the extreme and irregular circumstances we find ourselves in. The second winery you refer to was that of Carmelo Patti. He is one of the most popular wineries in the area for several reasons: 1) The winemaker (Señor Carmelo Patti) personally does the tours. This does not happen in other wineries except at an elevated premium price booked months in advance; 2) His wines are different from any other wines you will find in Argentina due to the fact that they are aged. Most wines you find in Argentina are very young, due to the economic situation in the country forcing most wineries to sell as quickly as possible rather than stockpile; 3) He is a small sized boutique winery and most people enjoy and appreciate the special attention they receive which is very different from the larger commercial size wineries. It is true that the winery itself is not very aesthetically pleasing, but as you yourself said the wines are excellent (which in our view is the most important factor in a wine tour). In fact you even bought some of his wines. Carmelo places less importance and emphasis on the aesthetics of his winery so he can invest more in the wines and afford to age them on site before sale. This sets his wines apart from all other wineries in Argentina and why we always like to include him in our tours. We choose the wineries we did (within the confines explained above) because one winery was very different from the other and we wanted to give you a wider view of the different kinds of wineries in Mendoza. Prior to booking, we made it very clear that the cycle route is not ‘through’ the vineyards. We explain very well on our website that the route is on a mix of cycle lanes and main roads. We pass in front of wineries and vines, with sections enjoying beautiful views of the mountains. We cannot choose where the wineries are located and we did not have much flexibility in terms of choice of route given that: a) You booked last minute; and b) Many of the wineries were closed due to coronavirus. As for your comment re price, our tours are very competitively priced and we provide excellent value for money. Most foreigners do not understand that everything costs triple in Argentina (with regards to equipment) due to importation costs etc. We have worked very hard to build up our fleet of high tech bikes (paying many times more than you would pay in the UK/Ireland). You yourself said that you were happy with the quality of the bikes. This has an obvious cost. Replacement parts are extremely difficult to find and very expensive. Also you will not find the same high tech bikes with any of our competitors. Finally, as you had a private tour you could very easily have voiced your concerns to Martin at the time. You yourself mentioned that he was very approachable and kind. Everything is possible in a private tour so, had you wished to cover more ground or spend more time cycling (in different sectors with perhaps more views) this was easily remedied. We cannot however read minds. I would have hoped that a fellow Northern Irish man would have more empathy and understanding of the circumstances as well as some solidarity. Again, we thank you for your review however, rather than put a negative impact on our business on a public forum, it would have been nice to have some ‘personal human interaction.’ Very disappointing coming from someone from Northern Ireland! Julie-Anne & Martin
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This is a must-do for anyone visiting Mendoza! Martin was absolutely fabulous. The two selected wine tours were incredible and the 6-course wine pairing, at one of them, was out of this world! You'll be so happy with your decision to take the tours! The bikes were very comfortable and the riding was easy! Our guide was also fabulous!…
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Date of experience: February 2020
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Just completed a great tour with Martin. We visited 3 very different wineries, and tasted some great wines. Lunch was lavish with generous pourings. Martin offers great equipment, including helmets and takes great care of safety, including routes appropriate to the customer. It's a really good way to soak in the atmosphere of the vineyards of Mendoza area, and Martin is extremely knowledgeable about the vineyards he visits, history, process and end result. Highly recommend!…
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Date of experience: March 2020
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